INDIA’S POLITICAL SYSTEM

British Political History

❖ Colony of Great Britain
• Came under British rule in 1858
❖ Growing feeling of nationalism
❖ Mahatma Gandhi
• Leader of anti-British civil disobedience in
1920
❖ End of British rule in 1947
❖ Creation of India’s constitution in 1949.
President, Vice President, & Council of
Ministers
1. President is the head of state and
elected by electoral college
• 5 year term
• Commander of armed forces
• Can put India in a state of emergency
2.Vice-President is the Chairman of the Council
of States
• 5 year term
• Elected by electoral college
3. Council of Ministers is the supreme
governing body
• Cabinet members, ministers of state
• The president approves them and they
must be members of Parliament
• Help the president and prime minister
exercise their power.
Prime Minister vs President
1. President
Nominal executive
Oversees ceremonial functions (similar to
royalty in Great Britain)
The Presidents signs all the bills, but can not
reject them
2. Prime Minister
Chosen by the political party that is in power
Known as the “chief advisor” to the president,
but is actually the head of the government and
the most powerful
Picks the Council of Ministers.
Council of States (Rajya Sabha)
Upper house
Elected by the state parliaments
250 members
Mostly elected from their state parliaments
12 members are assigned by the President
6 year terms
Rolling retirement – 1/3 retire every year.
The People’s Assembly (Lok Sabha)
Lower house
Elected directly by the people
 545 Members
• 543 members are selected from the
states
• 2 members are selected by the
president
Elected every 5 years.
Supreme Court
One chief justice
30 other judges
Final court of appeals
Primary purposes
Protect rights of its citizens
Settle disputes between governments in
India

States and Territories

India has 28 states and seven union territories
 State governors are appointed by
theTerritories.
They serve five year terms
States have their own parliaments
They oversee education, agriculture, local
government, etc The federal government has
power over anything not
Assigned to the states.

Political Party Overview

Multi-party system classified as national,
state or regional level
Status of party is accorded by the Election
Commission of India
All parties are registered with Election
Commission.
National Political Parties
 Political parties which participate in different
elections all over India
Criteria for Recognition:
A party by must live up to at least one of the
following qualifications to be recognized
Win a minimum of 2% of the seats in
the Lok Sabha from at least 3 different states
In General Elections, party must manage
to win 6% of votes and win at least 4 Lok Sabha
seats
The party is recognized as a state level
party in four or more states
Very few political parties are able to make
presence as a national party
These parties have a big presence in India:
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP), Communist Party of India (CPI),
Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM),
India National Congress (INC), National
Congress Party (NCP)

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)

The word “ bahujan” means the majority of
the people and “Samaj” means society
BSP represents the majority of the people and
represents mainly the oppressed sections of
society
The elephant on the symbol represents
physical strength and will-power

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

Translates to “ Indian People’s Party”
Right-wing political position
Strongly adheres to cultural nationalism
through social conservatism and integral
humanism
 The symbol contains a lotus, which is India’s
flower and is used to indicate national identity.
Communist Party of India (CPI)
Oldest party to have begun the communist
movement in India
Symbol is ears of corn and a sickle with a red
background
Red is the color of struggle symbolizing a
communist party
The ears of corn and a sickle depicts that CPI
contains peasants, farmers and laborers who
work the fields for a living

Communist Party of India (Marxist)

Left-wing political party with communist
political ideology
The symbol is red which represents
communism
 The intersecting hammer and sickle depicts
that the party is a party of working class (
peasants, farmers and laborers)
The sickle and hammer are used to cut corn
and all other crops in the field
Symbol is very similar from the CPI because
their ideologies are not much different.

India National Congress (INC)

Country’ s oldest political party
One of the two major national political
parties
Operates on the ideology of Gandhian
Socialism and Social Democracy
Center- left political position
Symbol is the “right hand” with its palm-side
facing front, usually seen in the center of the
Indian flag which is the background
 Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)
Born out of the Indian National Congress
when 3 members were expelled
Stands for upholding democratic secular
society along with equality, social
Justice and unity in the nation
Believe integrity of India can be achieve by
strengthening federalism and decentralizing
power
Symbol is a clock that reads 10:10, drawn in
blue and has 2 legs and an alarm button-
denotes that NCP will keep fighting for its
principle no matter how difficult the situation

State Parties
Political parties that participate in different
elections but only within one state
 Some states have more than one state party
Criteria of a State Party
• A party must live up to at least one of
the following qualifications to be
acknowledged as a state party
Win at least 3 seats or 3% of the
seats in the state legislative assembly
Win minimum one seat in the Lok
Sabha for every 25 seats or any fraction allotted
to the
State
Status of a state party can still be
bestowed upon an entity even if it fails to win
any seats in the Lok Sabha or the assembly if it
wins 8% of the total votes cast in the entire
state
Critical to make or break alliances in the Lok
Sabha election.
Regional Parties
Smaller parties that hold considerable clout in
individual states leading to high fragmentation
of vote distribution
“Trump card” of India’s political system.
Political Parties
Political parties in which one person pulls all
the strings
Shiv Sena have their stronghold in the
public not because of leaders but because of
Party ideology
Other parties are completely dependent on
respect the leader has in public
Also independent candidates
High number of film actors join Indian politics
Many state parties attract local film
industry actors in their party